


Tooth and Nail

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Blood and Gore, Crime Fighting, Dysfunctional Family, Family Issues, Gen, Good Brother Deigo Hargreeves, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Talking To Dead People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2019-11-06 10:09:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17937815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Sure, they had always known that Klaus had some fight in him. They knew that he could fight tooth and nail for something if he wanted it badly enough, but in all the years they’ve known him, which was all their lives, they have never seen him fight like a man possessed.They were all whole-heartily terrified for him. Klaus was thin and small and sickly and who knew what he had taken before they had left and the man he was facing was so muscly he almost rivalled Luther in regards to brute strength, but no one could compare to the poisonous, wild glint in Klaus’s eye.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My mum and I have been watching the Umbrella Academy together and it's really fucking good.

Sure, they had always known that Klaus had some fight in him. They knew that he could fight tooth and nail for something if he wanted it badly enough, but in all the years they’ve known him, which was all their lives, they have never seen him fight like a man possessed.

It started off with him as nothing but the lookout, as their missions usually tend to go, but when Diego was thrown halfway across the room and Allison was punched in the gut so hard that the breath was knocked out of her, Klaus had leapt down off of the scaffolding that he was crouched on and struck the biggest guy across the back of his head with a heavy metal pipe on his decent. The sound the pipe made against the back of his skull seemed to reverberate around the entire room and everyone stopped to look as Klaus went in for another attack.

They were all whole-heartily terrified for him. Klaus was thin and small and sickly and who knew what he had taken before they had left and the man he was facing was so muscly he almost rivalled Luther in regards to brute strength, but no one could compare to the poisonous, wild glint in Klaus’s eye.

When it first began the ones they had been fighting- the ones clad in dark navy to hide the splatters of blood that would eventually coat their uniform- watched the altercation was gleeful cackling, sure that Klaus would lose. They had the rest of the Hargreeves pushed back and held tight, one hand over Allison’s mouth and the others clutched in a huddle so they couldn’t escape. Luther was pinned to the ground and Diego had his hands bound behind his back and multiple men were holding on to Five so he couldn't time-jump away, as though they knew exactly what the children could do. It had all gone to shit when Klaus had gouged out his assailant’s eyes though and the larger man fell back with a scream, clawing at his blood-slick face.

He went under for a moment, a tiny man hidden under the mass of sweaty raging bodies but then he was suddenly off to the side and it wasn’t a metal pipe he was holding but a knife that glinted wickedly in the over-head lights. The sound the blade made as it sunk into flesh was so grotesque that Allison squealed and turned her eyes away. When he pulled the blade clear from the skin, the upwards trail of blood splattered all down his face and the man he had stabbed lied still and lifeless.

Ducking and weaving, Klaus somehow managed to remain relatively unharmed and untouched until one of the men reached out and caught the end of his coat and dragged him in close. He held him up high, one arm under his throat, and Klaus dropped his head and sunk his teeth into the meat of the man’s arm. He dropped Klaus with a roar of pain and rage and went to make another swipe before the blade was embedded in the base of his neck.

Once the blade was replaced with a machete, then an axe and at one point Klaus fought with nothing but his hands, scratching and clawing and snarling at anyone who dared take a swipe at him. His clothes were ripped and coated in blood and yet the ferocious fire crackling in his eye had the men hesitating to come closer. A lone man came too close at one point and Klaus had thrown his head right up under his chin and blood flew from the man’s nose and mouth as he collapsed in a heap.

Just when they thought the fight was over and their brother had lost, or worse, there was a loud, thunderous _crack!_ that seemed to shake the warehouse and the man closest to Klaus fell to the ground, blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth and his brain blown out the back of his head. And when the men surrounding him scattered, Klaus stood in the centre mass, a still smoking gun held in his hand. He looked confident, unafraid as if a gun was something he had used before, the feeling of the handle against his palm and his finger on the trigger something he was familiar with.

Men fell at his feet, writhing in agony or bleeding to death on the tiles, blood pooling under them like a puddle. Klaus didn’t seem to mind. He approached the big burly men holding his siblings back from the fight and aimed the gun at the closest one. The bullet met its target right between his eyes.

The smarter men scattered, their fear overtaking their protocol and training, but those foolish enough charged Klaus with a battle cry that died in their throats the moment the bullets silenced them. As Klaus approached his family, the gun held down by his side, his face and ruined clothes covered in blood and gore, Luther took a long, long look at his brother. “What the fuck?” He breathed.

Klaus grinned at him but before he could speak, Allison screamed and pointed behind him and he was tackled to the ground by the last remaining man and they rolled around in the copious amounts of blood as Klaus tried to get away.

Luther leapt forward to yank the attacker off of his brother and Diego pulled a knife from his belt but before either of them could get far, there was a loud series of gunshots and the man slumped off of Klaus, and onto the floor, groaning at the last moments of his life left him. When Klaus stood back up, whipping his hand on his pants, the man was no longer breathing and his eyes stared cold and lifeless at the roof.

Expectantly, Klaus laughed, loud and frantic and crazy, which wasn’t really all that different from the way he normally laughed and clapped his hands as he jumped up and down like a child in a candy store. “Well, that was fun. Come on, let’s get out of here- if we hurry we might be able to stop for ice-cream at that store down the street. Their bubble-gum is to _die_ for.”

As Klaus lead his family out towards the exit, chatting cheerily to Ben as they made their way towards the light, leaving the pile of bodies in their wake, Luther turned to Diego and nodded once, sternly, and they knew where to meet.

* * *

  Diego was already there waiting for him when Luther entered their father's study, his feet up on the desk and a knife twirling between his fingers, but Luther really didn’t have the heart to object. Once the door shut behind him and the lock fell solidly in the latch, he whirled on his brother. “What the fuck was that today?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, man,” Diego placed the knife on the table and his hands in his lap and stared at the wall. “It was fucking crazy. I didn’t know he could fight like that.”

“ _Where_ did he learn how to fight like that?” Luther ran a giant hand down his face. “I mean, I know he’s not completely useless, but I don’t think he absorbed much information when he was drugged out, running butt-naked through the streets. And even if he did, when has Klaus ever done anything he was told?”

Biting his lip, Diego shrugged. “I don’t know, but it might have something to do with his new tattoo, and the dog tags he wears around his neck now.”

“Tattoo- you mean the ones on his hands?”

“No, I mean the one on his shoulder.” Diego rolled his eyes and stood, his feet dragging papers off the table as he removed them. “The army one. You haven’t seen it? He’s been acting really strange too.”

Luther sighed. “It’s Klaus. He’s always acting strangely.”

“You really don’t see it?” Diego choked out a bitter laugh and shook his head at his clueless brother. “He’s acting like Five. He covers his ears when there are gunshots. He jumps when someone sneaks up at him. He’s more hostile than he used to be, and that’s him _sober_. There’s definitely something going on with him, man, and there’s no way that I’m the only one who’s noticed it.”

Closing his eyes, Luther breathed slowly through his nose. “Maybe… a ghost taught him? Maybe someone else?”

“I don’t think so,” Diego looked around the room at all of their father’s pointless things. “This is almost raw street-skill, and we all know that he’s spent some time there but he’s never been one to stand his ground. He can fight, sure, but he’s easy pickings. He’s small and frail and high most of the time so he would have had to learn fast. And besides, I know he's getting better with controlling his powers, but how would a ghost be able to teach him how to use a gun like that? I've seen men use guns, Luther. It was like he was trained.”

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Luther sighed through his nose and watched his brother flick idly through their dad’s paperwork like it was nothing more than souvenirs. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think he’s acting any different than he normally does. Avoiding any work, disappearing when we need him most and not showing up for days at a time, pretending to talk to people who aren’t really there- I don’t think anything’s changed.” He shrugged at Diego’s withering glare. “I mean, other than what happened today. That was just crazy.”

Diego dropped the stack of papers to the table with a heavy thud as he slowly stood. “You fucking moron. You know he can talk to the dead, right? Who’s to say that he _isn’t_ talking to people that we can’t see?”

“Oh come on man,” Luther scoffed. “You know he’s high all the time. He can’t do anything if he isn’t sober.”

Growling, Diego shoved Luther into the wall and his brother glowered down at him. “You absolute jackass. You really are a self-absorbed prick, aren’t you? You only notice anything when it directly involves you. If it wasn’t for Klaus today, you’d be dead already. We all would be. And yet, you still find every opportunity you can to pretend Klaus isn’t’ there and that there aren’t any problems. Well, newsflash asshole- he exists and there’s something wrong.”

Luther looked down at Diego’s hands that were fisted in his overcoat. “I’m going to give you 10 seconds to let go before I toss your ass across the room.”

“Look me in the eyes, Luther,” Diego snapped, his anger rapidly rising to a full-blown fury and one he had been trying desperately to keep in check, but Luther had always managed to make him the angriest without even trying. “Look me and the eyes and tell me genuinely that you think there is nothing wrong with our brother and that everything is just hunky dory like normal.”

Slowly, Luther met Diego’s eyes with an even stare. “If there was something wrong with Klaus, he would have told me. Because he hasn’t said a word to anyone, not even you oh wise one, so I’m going to take it as a no- there’s nothing wrong.”

Diego shook his head in a vain attempt to hide the disgust on his face. “Unbelievable.” He said, letting go of his brother and pulling away. “Un-fucking-believable. You really are blind if you can’t see it. And why the fuck would he tell you anything? Do you even hear yourself- you just listed the many ways he was unreliable and a waste of time and you still think he would come to you if he had a problem?”

“There is no problem, Diego!” Luther shouted, bunching his fists at his sides. “You’re making an issue when there isn’t one!”

Angrily, Diego pointed his finger at the door. “How the fuck do you explain him being able to fight like that then? Sure, maybe he did pick it up, but obviously not from one of us. We never bothered to teach him! Not him of Vanya or even Five because we always just waved them off as being able to look after themselves. Instead of helping Klaus learn about his powers and teach him not to fear them, we set him up as lookout every single time and just waved him off as a lost cause. None of us taught him how to use a firearm yet he wielded it so well today that I could almost imagine that I taught him myself, but we both know that isn't true because none of us ever thought he'd get into a situation where he'd need it. So tell me, Number 1,” Diego brought his raised voice down to something deep and low and pitched to carry. “Tell me how he learnt to fight like that.”

“Don’t be so stupid, Diego,” Luther growled, hunching his shoulders and clenching his fists so tightly that he heard his leather gloves creak. “You know just as well as I do that we did our best.”

“Well maybe our best has just never been good enough,” Diego replied, removing a knife from the holster at his hip, slow and steady. Luther’s eyes tracked it as he brought it forward. “If it was, our brother wouldn’t have had to learn how to fight for himself from some stranger on the streets who obviously knew him better than we did. Or god forbid he taught himself. Face it Luther- if our best was really good enough, we would have been able to stop Klaus from taking drugs in the first place. But we never even tried.”

Luther roared and charged Diego who had his knife poised in front of him, ready to strike true when the door to their father’s study burst open and Klaus stood there, a bell in one hand and the other on his hip. “Now what have I told you children about fighting in your daddy’s study?” He fake-chided, waving the bell at them like a stern mother waggling a disappointed finger.

“K-Klaus.” Diego stuttered in surprise, quickly hiding his knife back at his side. “What are you doing here?”

“Ben told me he heard people shouting and convinced me to come check it out,” Klaus collapsed onto one of the chairs in the corner, a heavy cloud of dust rising from the fabric as he sat heavily down on the seat that hadn’t been used in decades. “He made a valid point. I’ve already lost one brother, there really isn’t a reason for me to lose another two.”

“We were just talking.” Luther said and Diego sent him a heated glare which he ignored. “Everything is fine.”

Klaus hummed, unconvinced. “Looks more like a war than a friendly conversation. What were you talking about? Come on, it had to have been important if even Ben got interested.”

Diego cleared his throat and rubbed his hands on his pants, clearing them away from the invisible blood and muck he felt coating them. “We were just wondering where you um, where you managed to fight like that. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Before Klaus could reply, he glared off to the side and hissed. “Shut up Ben, they don’t know that. No, that’s not fair. But who cares?” He turned back to his living brothers and shrugged like it was no big deal. “Ben doesn’t think I should tell you but I never really have listened to Ben so I’m going to tell you anyway. You pick things up here and there- and sometimes you find someone who thinks you're worth it and they teach you some cool tricks, like how to break someone’s nose with your head.” He turned back to the corner and stuck his tongue out at the air. “See? You need to have more faith in me, Ben. Don’t give me that look, it’s not like I told them everything.”

Luther frowned and rubbed his hands together, uncomfortably. “Uh, no offence Klaus, but I don’t think dealers and junkies think that other addicts are worth anything.” Diego kicked him in the shin and Luther looked down at him disapprovingly. “What? It’s true. If he wasn’t my brother I would probably think the same way, so there is no way in hell that someone on the streets taught him that.”

“Luther that’s enough!” Diego snapped but paused as he watched Klaus slowly rise from his seat. “K-Klaus?”

“Listen, Luther,” Klaus’s voice was full of something dark and menacing, his voice doubled as if coming from a speaker, many voices echoing his at once. His hands shook on the armrests and the spaces between his clenched hands shone a faint, glowing blue. The others could see a ghostly image of their dead brother begin to materialise in the corner, looking frantically at Klaus and shaking his head. “You may not think that I’m _worth_ anything and that I’m nothing but a burden to you, and hey, maybe you’re right, but I’ll be _damned_ if I ever let anyone talk to me like that again. Do you get it now? I’m trying my best and you _still_ don’t think I’m worthy of being treated like a human being then I can just get out of your hair.”

“No, Klaus, that’s not what I-” Luther was cut off as Diego reached out and pulled him back by the collar of his overcoat.

“Well you listen here,” Klaus continued. “There are people out there who think I’m someone who could be worth something one day and they spent their time and effort on making sure I lived to see what I was capable of, and just because you’re _jealous_ that _you_ didn’t get to teach your _scared_ little brother how to throw a mean left hook doesn’t mean you get to pretend you were a brother to me at all because you’re _fucked_ if you think for even a second if you think you treated me like any kind of family!”

And then he was gone, nothing but the ghostly echo of his rare burst of anger and his bitter words whipping on his silver tongue like darts and the door slammed shut behind him, just as the mirage of a crying Ben followed him through the door as it slowly faded. Diego turned to Luther, who was looking at the door like Klaus had just ripped his heart out and taken it with him. “Are you happy now? Satisfied? I fucking told you something was w-wrong and you were too damn stubborn to believe me. But now you can’t deny it anymore, Luther. You fucked up, we _all_ fucked up, and now we have to live with the consequences. Because if we didn’t teach him how to take care of himself, it means that someone did it for us and that we should have stepped up when we had the god-damn c-chance.”

Diego spun on his heels and left the room, trailing after Klaus like a desperate puppy, almost tripping over his feet in his haste and left Number 1 alone in their father’s study, filled with pointless mementos and ruined promises and shouting matches that always resulted in blood and tears and he brought his hands down on the heavy mahogany desk and cracked it right down the middle, years of his father’s work gone in an instant like a spell had been destroyed.

In the silence that remained after the shattering sound of breaking wood, Luther slid into his father’s chair, not caring about how he fit in it and how he was sure that he was breaking it, and he dropped his head to his hands and shook, wondering how he could have let his family be so fragmented.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment Five had felt the hands of those men holding him down, he knew that the Umbrella Academy was done for. The only thought that crossed his mind for a long while was that he had never been sorrier for Vanya in his life- ostracised when she was a child and abandoned by the death of her siblings when she was an adult. Not exactly the ideal life to live.

But apparently Klaus, (who Five had entirely forgotten was with them) was completely against the very idea of losing any more of his siblings and he leapt down from his hiding place with the grace of a savage, hungry animal. Which is to say, with no grace at all. But the sound at which the metal pipe he had found struck the larger man’s skull was music to Five’s ears and he could help but smile as he fought with reckless abandon.

And then the killing had started and Five felt something within him go cold.

There was blood all over the floor and all over the walls and Klaus’s hands were coated in a thick layer of it. The many weapons he had gotten a hold of during the altercation nearly slipped from his fingers multiple times as the blood made his hands slick. While he almost always looked a little too wild, a little too unkempt, the look on his blood-splattered face as he murdered man after man with nothing but a gleeful smile was almost too much for Five to comprehend.

Beside him, Allison was shaking against her captors and while he knew that both Diego and Luther were held back somewhere to his side, they were both silent as they watched Klaus rip their attackers to shreds. In a different life, Five would have been very proud of his brother who could not until recently hold anything other than an umbrella or a needle without fainting from the stress. Five had to wonder how much input Ben had on the entire experience- it was impossible for Klaus to go anywhere without their dead brother following him around.

The cracking and breaking of bones would not have made Five flinch if it wasn’t his mostly harmless brother doing it.

But nevertheless, Klaus killed them all and showed no remorse for their deaths as if that sort of desperate brutal warfare was something that he was used to- that was engraved into his very bones. When Klaus was walking home, licking happily at his bubble-gum ice-cream and humming under his breath, Five had to wonder why his brother approached murder as though he had lived the same life as Five himself did. One filled with blood and gore and pain and loneliness in order to survive. And then remembered that he absolutely had and nobody ever bothered to care.

As always, Luther and Diego fought as soon as they got home and Five paid no attention to it until Klaus stormed out of the room with fury on his face and a glowing blue light between his fingers. While Five was always one to avoid talking to his siblings when he didn’t necessarily ought to, but after a day like they had, he thought it’d be in everyone’s best interest if he checked on how Klaus’s psyche was holding up. What he did not expect, however, was for Klaus to be seated on the couch in the most grandiose room in the mansion with large sliding doors closed, chatting with Ben.

“I just… I don’t get why they think I’m so fucking weak.” Klaus complained, a hand dramatically draped over his face. “I can fight. I’ve always been able to, I’m not a baby. No, that isn’t fair. So what if I’d rather spend time with addicts and drunkards then them, it’s not like they treat me any better.”

Five crept closer and peered through the crack in the door just as Klaus glared at the corner. “Yeah, well, it was a stupid suggestion. That’s how it used to be Ben, but it hasn’t been like that since you died. No, Dave isn’t going to be disappointed in me because he died in 1968 and I haven’t been able to see him since, despite him being the only reason why I even tried to stay sober.”

There was a lapse in the conversation where Klaus was either ignoring or listening to Ben’s side of the argument and Five took that opportunity to study the look on Klaus’s face. Resentment and disappointment and hopelessness. Those were not exactly new expressions to see on his brother's face but they were after he had just killed a room filled with armed men and put two of their most hot-headed brothers in their place. There was something painfully haunted about the look on Klaus’s face and it made Five wonder where the hell they had all gone wrong with him and Vanya both.

He was wrenched from his thoughts when Klaus threw his hands out and sat up, gesturing at the other side of the room. “I know where you’re coming from Ben, but they’ve never been there for me and especially not when I needed them most. If they ever cared in the first place they would have been there for me to turn to long before I was on the streets every night looking for drugs. For all intents and purposes, it’s their fault I’m a fucking addict and you’re mad at me all the time. Yes, I know I can’t really blame them but it’s fun to pretend.”

In Five’s opinion, Klaus had a point and it was one that made more sense to him than anything his brother usually prattled about. If his siblings had been there to help him deal with the ghosts that screamed at him every night, then maybe he would have learned to control his power from a young age and never would have turned to drugs and alcohol as an aid to dull his powers. It made perfect sense. And Five hadn’t been around for almost 30 years but he was still pretty sure that none of their siblings had stepped up to the plate long after they knew what was happening.

“Alright, fine. But so what if I’m angry? Why can’t I be angry with them? All this time I’ve had to pretend I’m fine with being forgotten and useless when really all I wanted was a fucking phone call every now and again. Who cares if I don’t have a phone! I didn’t have a bed for a couple of years but they didn’t care then!” Klaus flopped back down to the couch and wrapped his black feathered coat around himself. “Yeah, I know Vanya felt the same way but at least they felt something towards her. It was anger, sure, but it’s a hell of a lot better than indifference. I’d rather they hate me for the rest of my life than not remember if I even still existed.”

There was silence for a few beats and Five held his breath. “Fine, yeah. I’ll take a nap. See if I can wake up in a more chipper mood in the morning as if that’ll help anyone. Sure, you have my permission to punch me.”

Five waited a little longer until he could hear the familiar snores of his brother before he ported into the room and sat gracefully down on one of the chairs. He crossed his legs and folded his hands calmly over them as he watched Klaus burry his head in the pillow. _Well, things like this are always worth a shot, in my opinion,_ he thought before he dived right in. “Ben,” he called softly into the ether, hoping someone would actually hear him and that he wasn’t just talking to thin air. “I think it’s time we had a bit of a chat about our dear old brother.”

* * *

 

Ben had been there the whole time. Klaus hadn’t really been paying attention, more invested in his phone than being the designated lookout, but when Ben had gasped he had looked up and watched as more men with heavy weapons dressed in the same navy fabric slowly crept into the room to surround the rest of their siblings fighting in a ring. Klaus had watched and waited, baited his time until he saw Diego being tossed across the room like a rag-doll and Allison punched so hard that she couldn’t get air into her lungs to utter a sound and when he saw everything going to shit, he picked up the nearest heavy object and leapt off the scaffolding before Ben could tell him to stop or see what he grabbed.

It was only when he heard the loud ringing sound as it met the back of the largest man’s head that he realized it was a heavy metal pipe that he had taken from the framework he was perched on.

While it was true Klaus was scrappy and vicious when he needed to be, the only time he’d ever really needed to fight for his life was when he was fighting in the Ah Shau valley during the Vietnam war when he opened that damn briefcase, but the memories Ben had of that time were hazy, as though they were faded photographs of Klaus’s own memories. Now, as Ben watched Klaus claw out an attacker’s eyes, he wondered if it was the war that had taught him how to fight so brutally or if it was something else entirely.

If his heart still beat within his chest, Ben could have sworn that it would have stopped the moment Klaus went under the tangle of sweaty, bleeding bodies. Ben felt powerless, unable to even pull men away from his brother and the only support he could give in such a pivotal moment was to shout encouragement and praise from the sidelines.

When Klaus had wrapped his fingers around the handle of the gun and blew a mans brain out was the only time Ben relaxed- he knew Klaus could handle a gun, knew that the war had taught him exactly what to do with a firearm in a moment like this. Ben waited until every last man was dispatched and wasn’t too afraid when one snuck up behind him and died like the others when Klaus had put a handful of bullets into his chest.

On their way out, Klaus covered in blood and their siblings shell-shocked behind them, Ben turned to his brother. “That was fucking crazy man,” He said in awe. “I didn’t think you could fight like that.”

“I am rather brilliant, aren’t I?” Klaus smiled before he winked at Ben. “I love surprises, don’t you? Don’t lie, we both know you love them just as much as the next ghost.” Before Ben could argue the contrary, Klaus turned around excited and announced, "Well, that was fun. Come on, let’s get out of here- if we hurry we might be able to stop for ice-cream at that store down the street. Their bubble-gum is to  _die_ for.”

And Ben was willing to leave it at that, leave it until night fell and he and Klaus were alone in his bedroom so he could talk about all the messed-up shit that happened today, but he heard the loud, common arguing of his other brothers from their father’s study and knew immediately what was happening. “I think Luther and Diego are talking about you in dad’s study.” He told Klaus and his brother grabbed his mother’s handbell from where it sat on the dresser and marched his way towards the room despite Ben’s protests.

He listened at the door for a moment, his face warping into many different emotions in the short span and just when it sounded like Luther and Diego were about to get into another one of their fights, he threw open the door and rang the bell at them. “Now what have I told you children about fighting in your daddy’s study?”

It almost killed Ben for a second time to watch Luther justify himself to Klaus and for Diego (hot-headed, volatile Diego) to be the one to pull him back when it was Klaus himself who got the angriest. Ben had never seen light sprout from his hands in such a way or for his voice to reverberate around the room as if speaking from the mouths of the many ghosts that follow him, but for a second he was sure his other brothers looked at him in shock as he wept and darted after his bother.

They were both gone long before Diego had decided on where to look.

Klaus slid the double doors shut behind him and dropped onto the couch with a sigh and covered his face with an arm. “I just… I don’t get why they think I’m so fucking weak.” Klaus whined. “I can fight. I’ve always been able to, I’m not a baby.”

“You’ve always been a younger brother to them, even though we’re all born on the same day. They’ve thought the same with me and Vanya too,” Ben suggested gently. “And maybe because of all the time you’ve spent with other addicts and alcoholics on the streets that you never learnt to fight like the rest of them. You know, never really put in any professional training as they have.”

“No, that isn’t fair. So what if I’d rather spend time with addicts and drunkards then them, it’s not like they treat me any better.” Klaus snapped, but there was no heat towards Ben himself.

Looking away, ashamed, Ben’s voice came out as something barely a whisper and he wasn’t sure how he felt about his moment of weakness. “I’m sorry, by the way. When you were chasing after Luther at that rave, I told you he would have done the same for you but now I know that it was a lie. He didn’t come for you when you were being tortured by Cha-Cha and Hazel. He didn’t even know anything was wrong when you came back from the war, or that you had gone at all. I’m sorry I used that against you, it was a low blow. I just guess… that’s just how I remembered it being, back then.”

“Yeah, well, it was a stupid suggestion. That’s how it used to be Ben, but it hasn’t been like that since you died.” Klaus sighed

Ben cleared his throat. “Do you think Dave would be disappointed?” He felt such deep-seated shame over the way Klaus flinched. “With what’s been going on here? With how they treat you? With… you? For not standing up for yourself as you did back then?” He didn’t even know why he was asking. They hadn’t known each other for long and Ben hadn’t ever met Dave but there was something in the way Klaus was fiddling with the dog tags around his neck that really compelled him to ask the question that was obviously on his brother’s mind.

Klaus’s voice was low when he spoke, eyes still glued to the dog tags that he held gently between his fingers. “No, Dave isn’t going to be disappointed in me because he died in 1968 and I haven’t been able to see him since, despite him being the only reason why I even tried to get sober.” He spoke as if he was trying to convince _himself_ than convince Ben.

“Uh, this may be a crazy thing to ask, but do you think you could give them another chance? I don’t know, take the leap and try and fix things like they used to be? I know you and Vanya never used to be close but you can make that connection now?” Ben suggested casually. “And I know you’re going through some shit but they could be as well, so maybe if you talked to them about all the crazy shit they could help you, or you could help them. Like telling them about the Vietnam war or Dave or controlling your powers for example…”

“I know where you’re coming from Ben, but they’ve never been there for me and especially not when I needed them most. If they ever cared in the first place they would have been there for me to turn to long before I was on the streets every night looking for drugs. For all intents and purposes, it’s their fault I’m a fucking addict and you’re mad at me all the time. Yes, I _know_ I can’t really blame them but it’s fun to pretend.” Klaus waved his hands at him and laid back down.

“You’re angry,” Ben said bluntly and held his hands up in defence when Klaus glared at him. “Which is ok, I understand.”

“Alright, fine. But so what if I’m angry? Why can’t I be angry with them? All this time I’ve had to pretend I’m fine with being forgotten and useless when really all I wanted was a fucking phone call every now and again.”

“You don’t have a phone…” Ben pointed out.

“Who cares if I don’t have a phone! I didn’t have a bed for a couple of years but they didn’t care then!” Klaus huffed, using his coat as a blanket.

“Well, now you know how Vanya’s felt all her life. Nobody’s ever visited her lately or cared about her when she was younger and when she finally gets to see her family again, hoping everything would be different, everyone is mad at her. For writing a damn book. It’s not like she made plans to murder every one of us. She’s still our sister and yet she’s still treated like crap, so you can’t exactly say you’re the only one being overlooked.”

“Yeah, I know Vanya felt the same way but at least they felt something towards her. It was anger, sure, but it’s a hell of a lot better than indifference. I’d rather they hate me for the rest of my life than not remember if I even still existed.”

Sighing, Ben ran his hands down his face. Arguing with Klaus, as always, would never get him anywhere or anything but a headache so he went for a less direct route. “Alright, Klaus. I get it. But hey, maybe you should take nap and wake up feeling… I don’t know… less angry at the world? What you did before in dads study freaked me out a bit and I don’t want to talk about it if you’re sleep-deprived and pissed off. Besides- being tired always makes you cranky.”

Ben held his breath as Klaus seemed to think the words over and eventually come to a suitable conclusion. “Fine, yeah. I’ll take a nap. See if I can wake up in a more chipper mood in the morning as if that’ll help anyone.”

“Do I have permission to kick your ass if you’re still acting like a piece of shit?”

“Sure, you have my permission to punch me.”

When Klaus had finally fallen asleep and his familiar snoring filled the silent space, Ben moved from where he was sitting on the other end of the couch to the armrest by Klaus’ head. While he was still getting soberer by the day, Klaus was still currently unable to give any physical form to any of the ghosts he communed with, so Ben settled for gently running his fingers through Klaus’s hair, despite his fingers going straight through his body.

Suddenly there was a warping sound and when Ben glanced up, Five was seated in one of the chairs that faced the couch, arms and legs crossed politely. Not only was his appearance a shock, but the next words he spoke stunned Ben to his very core. “Ben,” Five said, like someone who was both determined to have a decent conversation with a group of four-year-olds and also someone who didn’t know if he was just being ridiculous. Ben supposed he must have felt it, talking to the air, insure if anyone could hear him think it’s time we had a bit of a chat about our dear old brother.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I FINALLY GOT TO IT and I made it a little longer than I had anticipated as an apology for the wait. I was in Ballarat with no wifi so I figured why not just write this chapter while I don't have any distractions and post it when I get home? Anyway, it's down now, it's probably shit, but I do hope you guys like it. It probably makes no sense but I had a fun time.
> 
> Also, before anyone asks, because I know someone will, Ben can touch Klaus and interact with small objects when Klaus is awake, but because he's asleep in this scene, Ben can't interact with Five. But when Klaus wakes up, Ben can touch other people and interact with larger objects. When Klaus uses his power (the glowy hand's thing and that), Ben can interact with other people and do bigger things, and if Klaus is REALLY trying, sometimes people can see him and stuff. I've written about it in a few other fics, so if you've read those, you know what I mean. Just thought I should clear that up. I hope you enjoy it x

Ben relaxed back down tentatively on the couch, trying to relax but unable to stop his shoulders from tensing. What the fuck did Five think he was doing? But Ben hadn’t had a real, genuine conversation with any of his other siblings in such a long time, that even an incidental one-sided conversation was enough for Ben. At least for the moment, and he wasn’t about to wake Klaus up from his much-needed nap so he could translate. So, just for his own benefit, he replied. “Um… sure?”

There was no outward reaction from Five, but he did fold his hands over his lap and sit up straighter in his chair. “I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not quite sure how well this is going to work, but I heard you talking to Klaus just before, and wherever he is you usually follow, so I thought that now would be the best time to… speak. If you could call this speaking. If it makes you feel better, even though I won’t be able to hear you, you may reply. As if I can stop you. Never mind.”

Resisting the urge to smile, Ben felt silent humour at his brothers confused blabbering and watched him shift uncomfortably. “Go on,” Ben joked, waving his hands. “I don’t have all day. Hurry up.” Which was absolute bullshit- he had the rest of his life. He spoke softly, so not to wake Klaus.

“It’s come to my attention that we have not been treating Klaus as fairly as we should.” Five continued, eyes scanning over Klaus’s sleeping body, his hair falling into his face, his hand tucked under his make-shift pillow, drool spilling from his lips, his eyes closed in a rare moment of peace. “And that at any and every moment, he is on the verge of collapse. Like a slowly decaying pillar. And I believe that in itself it is an… injustice to him.”

“Damn fucking right,” Ben said, standing and walking around the couch.

“I like to think I knew you rather well while you were alive.” Five continued, still very much under the assumption that he was talking to air. If any of his siblings saw him, they would certainly think that he had finally gone mad. “And I am sure that you have wanted to murder each and every one of us the entire time because of how badly we’ve treated him.”

Ben scoffed from where he was positioned at the bookcase, trying to pick up some paper and one of the pens left on a shelf, but his fingers were just shimmering through it. “Have you become some sort of mind reader as well as a time-travelling teleporter? Because you’re right with that too.”

Five took a deep breath, his stern composure cracking slightly and Ben looked at him with more attention. “I remember… I remember how close the two of you were. The number of times he would come crawling into your room for the remainder of the night when the ghosts tugged and pulled and scratched him, and I recall him comforting you and holding you tight when you despised the grotesque things that hid in the folds of your chest. Out of us all, it was the two of you who were the most like siblings, despite everything that was going on.”

The notion caught him so off guard that Ben didn’t even have anything to say, and he didn’t have to, because then Five was lowering his head and sighing heavily through his nose. “I suppose then that it shouldn’t be a surprise that you stayed by Klaus’s side through it all, even in death. No surprise at all, because you always were the only one to care about him, and the only one who ever fully realized what was going on with him, long back when.”

Continuing, Five closed his eyes as Ben slowly came around the back of the couch and sat gingerly down in the vacant spot beside Klaus’s legs. “So I guess I should thank you, for keeping him alive. You might not have been able to touch him or anything, but from what I understand, if you hadn’t have been with him while he was on the streets, he would have been alone. And we all know that Klaus doesn’t do well on his own, and despite that, not a single one of our siblings ever thought to help him in his great time of need. So thank you, for keeping our brother alive. When we could not do the same for you.”

“O-oh…” Ben began, slumping back against the cushions, mouth agape and mind working overtime. “I-I don’t…”

But Five couldn’t hear him, of course he couldn’t hear him, and instead, he continued on with that same sad, remorseful voice, eyes scanning the area as if hoping that they would land on Ben at some point, despite not knowing where he was. “We are supposed to be a family, and I fear that even before I was gone, we were already doing a pretty shitty job of being that. A truly fucked up job of being a family, because there was more love between me and Delores then there was between us, and our love bloomed under the basis of an apocalypse. No, our family has never been able to work as a unit and let me tell you, I know what working in a unit is like. It’s difficult and often necessary and though I prefer to work alone, if you put the effort in, all of us, then it works like a well-oiled machine and everything runs smoothly. But with us… we’ve never bothered to put the effort in. And now that I’m back, I’ve realized the consequences that has had on us.”

Like a switch being flipped, Five gave up on all pretence of formality and collapsed in his chair, one hand thrown over the side of the arm and his forehead in the other, his hair in disarray in his fingers and his legs flopped out across the floor in a very un-Five-like way. “There was once a time when I thought that our family could be great. That even if we drifted apart and lost touch over the years, we would always be a family, and despite what that old man did to us, we would always be there for each other. But then we lost you, Ben, and everything went to shit. And then I… disappeared, and I fear that everything just went downhill from there.”

“Where the hell are you going with this?” Ben asked softly as he rose from his position on the couch and crouched down by Five’s feet and tried to rest his hand on Five’s leg, but his hand passed through him, as expected. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve always known that you were the kindest of us,” Five continued. “The purest of heart. Sure, Klaus is loyal and cares about everyone and would lay his life on the line for his family, Diego is righteous and self-sacrificing, Vanya is just Vanya, and Allison always tries to keep the peace, but you have always been different in a way I could never describe. Klaus was always afraid of his powers. You just hated yours. Maybe that gave you more empathy for the rest of us. I don’t know.”

He raised his hand and waved it about in his silent, un-utterable frustration, passing through Ben’s head accidentally in the process. “And now, once again, it’s been up to you to keep our family together and you’re _dead_.” He shook his head. “You’re only here because Klaus has the power to keep you here with us. Or maybe you want to stay. I don’t know why you would, but you’ve always been like that. You shouldn’t have died. It never should have been you.”

Klaus stirred and Five paused and Ben stupidly held his breath, but when Klaus buried his head back into the pillows, Ben relaxed and Five continued, quietly this time. “But what’s done is done. Even I know that we can’t change the past, no matter how many times we’ve done it previously.” He sighed and put his head in his hands. “You’re dead, Ben. You’re dead. And there is nothing any of us can do, not even Klaus on a good day and I am so, so sorry for that.”

“No, no,” Ben hissed, crawling forward and trying to grab at his brother’s hands, but as awaited, and frustratingly, his hand shimmered and passed right through Five’s body like he was nothing but a hologram. “It wasn’t your fault. There wasn’t anything you could have done. _Nothing_. Do you hear me? Of course you don’t fucking hear me.”

Rubbing at his face, Five sighed heavily and sat forward, running his hands together and pinching at his nose. “But Ben, I promise you, that I’ll look after Klaus now. Now I know who he is, what he’s done, what he can do, I promise I’ll be the brother he needs. He can’t always rely on you, no matter how well it’s worked on him in the past. And as for the others… well. Luther naïvely thinks he knows everything there is to know about Klaus and Diego just wants to make sure his brother knows that he isn’t alone, and Allison doesn’t want him to die but she’s still rather indifferent and Vanya… she just cares too much about everyone, doesn’t she? I’ll take care of the others, make sure they treat Klaus like he deserves. You don’t have to worry. He’s not alone anymore.”

Scoffing, Five rolled his eyes, mostly at himself, and stood, fixing his cufflinks. “Look at me, talking to a ghost that may or may not be here. How fucking stupid. I must truly be a fool to think this was ever going to work.”

“Five, you pompous prick, I’m right here!” Ben shouted in a surprising bout of frustration that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

As expected, Five didn’t hear him, but Klaus did, and he winced and groaned and stirred. “Benny boy?” He moaned sleepily. “Why are we yelling? Should I be worried? Are we being attacked? If we are, can you take care of it, so I can go back to sleep?”

When Ben turned back to Five, all he was met with was a faint blue light as he caught the tail-end of Five’s teleport and the sucking sound was just beginning to fade. “No Klaus,” Ben said, slowly walking to the couch and sitting back in his vacant seat at Klaus’s feet. “Nothing’s wrong. I uh, just got a little excited, that’s all. I watched Diego and Luther start to fight again, and it looked like Diego was winning.”

“Oh, well that certainly is exciting, isn’t it?” Klaus yawned as he turned over and blinked the sleep from his eyes. He smiled up at Ben. “I had the craziest dream, and that’s saying something coming from me. I’ve had some pretty weird ones.”

“Yeah?” Ben chuckled as he pushed the hair off of Klaus’s forehead. Now that Klaus was mostly awake, Ben could touch him now, if only slightly. Klaus was the exception of this rule Ben had discovered- it wouldn’t have helped him during his ‘talk’ with Five. “What was it this time? Aliens coming down to eat your brain? Crazy axe-wielding nightmares? Birds with human faces? Your tongue falling out, sprouting legs and walking away?”

Klaus laughed and oh, how dearly Ben loved making Klaus laughed even after everything that had happened. “No, nothing like that. I think it was… Five? He was talking to you.” He said nonchalantly. Ben’s fingers stilled in Klaus’s hair. Even though it wasn’t exactly a secret, Ben doubted that Five would appreciate Klaus finding out about what had happened, even subconsciously. “Like, a tea-party sort of thing. And we were kids. And happy. And you were alive.”

“Now that,” Ben laughed nervously. “Sounds like a pretty crazy dream. Are you sure you didn’t take anything before your nap? That sounds like one of the dreams you had when you were high.”

Stretching like a cat with his legs out and arms above his head, Klaus giggled and crinkled up his nose. “Nah, not for a long time. Although I’m not gonna lie, there’s been times when I’ve needed it more than air and haven’t given in, so that’s pretty good.”

“It’s very good.” Ben agreed. “Great, in fact. I’m proud of you.”

 _“Oh!”_ Klaus snorted in that surprised sounding way of his. “Those are words I don’t hear all too often. Never, in fact. What a pretty little gift you’ve given me, Ben!”

Rolling his eyes, Ben gently tapped his hand down on Klaus’s nose, but he flinched in surprise anyway and uttered a pained sound even though Ben knew without a shadow of a doubt that he hadn’t actually hurt him. “You, need to shut the fuck up and stop lying out of your ass. You know damn well that I’m always proud of you. Diego probably is too.” After a pause, Ben quietly added, “Maybe Five, too.”

Snorting, Klaus sat up and wrapped his arms around Ben, crushing him to his chest. Klaus was very glad that he could do that now and Ben for his part had the grace to look unhappy with the affection he craved so very much. “Aw Ben, I knew you cared. As for the rest of the fuckers, they wouldn’t care if I sprouted wings and flew well away from here.” He turned to face Ben with a wicked gleam in his eye that Ben knew all too well. “Now- how about you and me go find some poor, deserving sap to terrorise, huh? I’m voting Luther, that prick is in desperate need of a little fall from the moon.”

“Sure Klaus,” Ben laughed, willing to go along with whatever it was that Klaus wanted as long as it made him happy. “Whatever you’d like.”

But Ben made a strong effort to keep him far away from Five and to leave him alone. It’s the least he could do, for offering to look after their brother.


End file.
